A new exhibition exploring the climate crisis through art opened Friday, Oct. 23, at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery in the Whitehead Campus Center.
"Eco-Social Realism," curated by Daniel Tucker, runs through Dec. 19 as part of a regional, multi-site show spread across five venues. The Haverford gallery is one anchor site, according to the exhibition's website. The other locations are Rowan University Museum of Contemporary Art, Street Road Artists Space, TILT Institute and Big Ramp.
Tucker, who serves as Project Director of Artist Residencies for the Arts at Penn office at the University of Pennsylvania, gave a 4:30 p.m. opening talk Oct. 23, followed by a reception in the gallery, according to the college's event listing.
Six artists are featured at the Haverford site: Keg de Souza, Sarah Kavage, Lize Mogel, Kristen Neville Taylor, Laurie Palmer and Rosten Woo. The broader exhibition includes about 25 artists and collaboratives across all venues.
The show grew out of the Eco-Social Series, an event series and learning community convening in Philadelphia since 2023. The series, co-sponsored by RAIR, Green Sun and Making Worlds, presents ecologically themed artwork and organizes excursions. The exhibition website describes the series as a response to interest in "bioregional practices that can visualize and embody the territorial scale of both problems and solutions related to the climate crisis."
De Souza's work at Haverford includes "Blue Gold," a piece tracing the history of indigo dye across India and the American South. According to a Haverford event page, the work links indigo stories rooted in the histories of India and the United States, connecting narratives of displacement and labor exploitation. De Souza, an artist of Goan ancestry based in Sydney, used indigo plants grown in the Haverfarm for a listening session tied to the exhibition.
The exhibition and programs at the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery are supported by Haverford's John B. Hurford '60 Center for the Arts and Humanities and the Tuttle Creative Residencies Program. Dylan Gauthier, a visiting assistant professor of environmental studies in the Bi-Co Department of Environmental Studies, is collaborating on the project.
Two more public programs are scheduled at Haverford. A "Banana Lecture" and launch of de Souza's publication "Bananas: A Wild Story" takes place Wednesday, Oct. 28, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in the VCAM Screening Room. A "Scaling Up & Down" video screening is set for Saturday, Nov. 14, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at Ulises, 1525 N. American St., Studio 104, in Philadelphia, featuring videos by Palmer, David Scott Kessler, Mogel, and Brian Holmes and Jeremy Bolen.
